In her youth, Kelly was cast in a small role in her high school's 1984 production ofAnnie. Due to illness, the girl playing Miss Hannigan was replaced, causing a series of cast changes leading to her choice of career. A devout Catholic, Kelly had to decide between acting and her childhood ambition of becoming anun.[5]
Kelly made her professional acting debut in the fact-based made-for-TV movieLove, Lies and Murder, playing teenager Cinnamon Brown, who was coerced by her father into killing his wife and her stepmother, Linda Brown. She was originally going to have a starring role asPolly Pry inTrey Parker andMatt Stone'sCannibal! The Musical, but Kelly was convinced not to do so by her agent out of concerns it could potentially ruin her career, and was ultimately replaced withToddy Walters, though she was still credited in the end credits under her initials "M.K." as "the Dropout".[6] She went on to have small roles in the filmsThe Boy Who Cried Bitch,Hi-Life, andBilly Bathgate before being cast asDonna Hayward inTwin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. For that film, she went home and got permission from her priest because of an explicit sex scene.[5] In the same year, she starred oppositeD. B. Sweeney in the romantic comedyThe Cutting Edge (during whose filming Kelly suffered a broken ankle, which cost her a part inPenny Marshall's filmA League of Their Own) and played two roles oppositeRobert Downey Jr. inChaplin. According to aTV Guide interview, before taking on her role inDaybreak, Kelly once again asked her priest for advice: "Being a Catholic, I wondered if it would be against my religion to play a girl who has premarital sex." The priest told her "it was okay, as long as my artistic intentions were true and I wasn't doing it for the notoriety or the money."[7]
Kelly starred in the CBS dramaTo Have & to Hold oppositeJason Beghe before playingMandy Hampton in the first season ofThe West Wing.[8] In 2003, Kelly began playing single motherKaren Roe on the teen dramaOne Tree Hill.[9] She also directed two episodes of the series: "Resolve" (2007) and "I Slept with Someone in Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me" (2006).[citation needed] In the fifth season, she ceased to be a regular cast member, but made guest appearances in the 100th episode and the sixth-season finale. She has made guest appearances in television shows such asHeroes,Law & Order, andNumb3rs. Kelly has also appeared in the filmsRemember the Daze,A Smile as Big as the Moon,Taken Back: Finding Haley, andGirl in the Bunker.
On August 5, 2000, Kelly married Steve Hewitt, a Texas businessman.[11][12] They have two children, a daughter Ella and a son Eamon.[13] Kelly had previously maintained a residence inWilmington, North Carolina, for eleven years.[14]
